{"id":12937,"date":"2019-06-16T11:57:09","date_gmt":"2019-06-16T15:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/?p=12937"},"modified":"2025-05-29T07:12:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:12:47","slug":"growth-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/growth-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Growth Strategy: Templates, Examples and How to Develop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"growth<\/a><\/p>\n

I often find that at the end of the year my sense of perspective is heightened and I generally feel a lot more motivated and excited about the future. <\/span><\/p>\n

Do you feel the same way?<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of this feeling comes from knowing that a new year is just around the corner, which means a fresh start at tackling any personal or business-related challenges. As a result, it\u2019s the perfect opportunity to start planning your growth goals for the coming year.<\/p>\n

But one of the challenges that come with planning our growth\u00a0strategy is setting realistic and ambitious expectations of what is achievable. <\/span><\/p>\n

As it turns out, there is a very effective strategy for setting and hitting your growth goals, and by following this strategy you can accurately predict what is possible to accomplish. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to walk you through the process of not only identifying what those goals are but also how you can break down the actions required to hit them. I\u2019ll also provide you with some useful growth strategy templates that myself and the team at Venngage use to help make the journey a lot easier. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

You can also take a look at some other <\/span>process infographic templates<\/span><\/a> that could help you map out different growth strategies in more detail. Or create a business plan<\/a> using our online drag and drop tool–no design experience required.<\/span><\/p>\n

The process for identifying and hitting your business goals can be broken down into five steps:<\/p>\n

Step 1: Identifying and setting your high-level goals.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Step 2: Understanding which inputs and outputs impact those goals.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Step 3: Running experiments to impact those inputs.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Step 4: Validating those experiments.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Step 5: Fostering accountability within your team.<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

By the end of this five-step process, not only should you have a very clear idea of <\/span>what<\/span><\/i> goals to target for the year, but you will know exactly what is required of you and your team to get there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Visually documenting the path to hitting your business goals<\/a> will not only help you have a better understanding of the specific factors that will influence growth, it will also provide the rest of your team with a concise and easy-to-follow\u00a0growth strategy roadmap as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

(Oh, and did I mention that\u00a0we’ve got plenty of roadmap templates<\/a> to help you visualize your growth strategy?)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Writing out the steps is useful, but <\/span>showing<\/span><\/i> those steps can help everyone envision the path in question.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 1: Start by identifying your high-level business goals<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As human beings, we have a tendency to start all journeys at the beginning. And this makes sense of course. After all, if the stories we read started at the end, wouldn\u2019t that defeat the purpose of going through the journey?<\/p>\n

Imagine if you were to start reading the Harry Potter series, and J.K. Rowling started the story by saying:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHey guys, just so you know, Harry wins and Voldemort is defeated in the end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Or if the <\/span>Star Wars series<\/span><\/a> started with Luke finding out that Darth Vader was his father? Wouldn\u2019t it kind of kill the mood and the anticipation that comes with reading or hearing a story?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"star<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, the journey to product growth<\/a> and business growth<\/a> functions a little bit differently.<\/span> In fact, it\u2019s almost more helpful to start at the end and work backward, especially\u00a0when your\u00a0planning growth<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n

It makes sense too, right?<\/p>\n

If you could know for sure how much revenue your company would make in the long-run before you even started your venture, would that not be helpful in figuring out the best\u00a0growth strategy to get there?<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting at the end of your growth strategy:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s always helpful to start out with a very high-level and ambitious goal. Many successful and fast-growing companies do this, and all of them have different terms to refer to these high-level goals.<\/p>\n

Shopify calls this the BHAG, which stands for <\/span>big, hairy, audacious goals<\/span><\/a>. This business goal is usually meant to seem a little bit crazy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Brian Balfour takes a more practical approach and refers to setting high-level goals as using the <\/span>Top-Down Approach<\/span><\/a> to inform your growth models. <\/span><\/p>\n

And of course, at Venngage we simply call these our \u201chigh-level\u201d or \u201clong-term\u201d goals. But the point is, you need to start out by mapping out\u00a0a long-term goal, like your 10-year goal. <\/span><\/p>\n

Where do you see yourself and your company by that time? How much should you grow your business<\/a>? How much revenue do you expect your company to generate? How many employees do you see yourself having? <\/span><\/p>\n

Take a look at the example in this\u00a0growth strategy template: <\/span><\/p>\n

\"growth<\/a><\/p>\n

These are the High-Level Growth Goals for a hypothetical company called <\/span>StartUp Masters<\/span><\/i>. Their mission (\u201c<\/span>To provide startups with an affordable means of managing projects in order to achieve rapid growth<\/span><\/i>\u201d) is clearly stated, and their goals are broken down in order to depict where they envision themselves to be In 10 years, 5 years, 3 years and finally 1 year.<\/span><\/p>\n

At 10 years old, the company expects to be making 100 million in revenue and they expect to achieve this with 120 employees. They\u2019ve also indicated the number of daily active users required to get there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"10<\/p>\n

On top of that, they\u2019ve listed out some steps required in order to achieve those goals. As you glance further down the funnel, you can see that this is, in fact, a pretty audacious business goal considering where the company is probably starting out from.<\/p>\n

By working backward, it becomes easier to make somewhat realistic goals of where the company would need to be in 5 years, 3 years and 1 year in order to hit that 10-year goal.<\/b><\/p>\n

Start breaking down your own high-level goals with the Growth Goals template.<\/a><\/h3>\n


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